I have no debt.

[porcupine kate]

How I did it. I made a choice to get out of debt and have savings.  Now I didn't have that much debt to begin with.  I started to track all the money I spent.  I actually wrote down every thing that came in and went out for a year and a half.  Then I could see where the money was going.  I then could look at it and see if it was worth spending the money.  I also set up my direct deposit to automatically divert money out of my checking account into savings so I wouldn't spend it.  The biggest thing was cutting down on the eating out and not upgrading my life style as my income increased.  I've let a lot of this slide and I haven't saved much since I moved up here.  My life is more expensive up here than it was in VA and I'm making less money.  I really need to start tracking every thing I spend and look to find a cheaper place to live if I'm going to buy a house by myself next year with 20% down. 

Check out the book Your Money or Your life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.  This book helped me a lot. 

[K. Darien Freeheart]

even tho you say you know about it and it is common sense as I read your last post you are already in a mind set that is not at all positive

I don't mean to sound defeated. Bad stuff happens, I get up and move on. I'm comitted to growing and gaining. It's the same process that makes me strive for New Hampshire. I really DO think I've internalized that concept even if it doesn't come across in my posts. Bad stuff happens. I keep moving anyway.

I cant really say what part of Dave Ramseys protocol would suit you best, Its really not that easy.

I was asking more what you gained from most personally. Learning is all about adapting new information to meet your circumstances. I'm wasn't asking you to plot out my sucess, just asking what you yourself had learned the most from. If you really think I need to read it ALL, so be it. Having gained from it, I'm sure there are things you find specifically valuable...

The biggest thing was cutting down on the eating out and not upgrading my life style as my income increased.

Being constantly pressed for time I tend to settle for what's "easy". This means I ate out a LOT. Do you and your family have any special dietary needs to take into account? My wife refused to eat anything with "extra carbs" and I don't really care. If you have recipes that work well for you I'd be quite happy to mooch off it that struggle.

That's partially my downfall. I'm kind of a here-and-nowist. My wife wants the delux movie channel package, GO FOR IT! My monitor's too small? Buy a ew one! This gets dangerous because I personally strugge with prioritizing. I've never bought something I didn't need, but I've had things immediately after buying them I've not wanted. Was pushing your means of living an issue for you and did you have any specifics to helping you deal with not having things? I've constantly amazed how I manage to "find" money in my budget when I really want something and I'm convinced it's merely a matter of perspective, but I'm not exactly sure how to get to a savings perspective.

My life is more expensive up here than it was in VA and I'm making less money.

Where in VA? I'm currently in Frederick Maryland, but I was raised in Michigan and was a transplant to Kentucky beforem oving here. I currently work in NoVA (Alexandria). I recall struggling in Kentucky dealing with MI sized debt and KY-sized income but my wife and I managed to come out ahead. this ios part of my fear with moving to the Keene area, honestly.  Virginia is the most prosperous, higherst-income area I've ever lived in and while I'm not buried in debt, I'm a bit weary to transfer my DC-metro sized debts to Keene without a STRONG and stable source of income. How was that transition as a whole?

Check out the book Your Money or Your life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.  This book helped me a lot.

Excellent, thanks!

[dalebert]

House debt doesn't necessarily count as long as your house is more valuable than what is owed on it. If you have a fixed rate mtg right now, in a way, you can think of inflation as shrinking your debt on that house. Of course, that can be a big if these days. Like any other investment, you have to think about when you get in and out of the real estate market but it's pretty darn stable in the long run as long as you're able and willing to wait it out.

[Russell Kanning]

Check out the book Your Money or Your life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.  This book helped me a lot. 

I loved that book.

[porcupine kate]

As an adult the least expensive place I have lived is Richmond VA.  I've also lived inside the beltway and across the river from Manhattan.   
I spent 11 of those years without a car.  I saved a ton of Money that way.  I did buy a car 4 years ago and that is the debt I just finished paying off.  It is a small practical car that I should get quite a few more years out of.
I don't own a TV.  It is amazing all the things you don't know about if you stop watching TV.  This reduces the desire for things you didn't know you needed.  It is also easier not to care what is in style and what it takes to keep up with the Joneses.
I keep a stocked pantry so I tend to buy food in larger quantities when it is on sale.  I had to do this when I didn't have a car.  It was worth getting a taxi or getting a ride from a friend if I was doing a large shopping trip.  Keeping a kitchen full of food was a huge help when I injured my knee two years ago and couldn't drive for 2 1/2 months.  I didn't need to go food shopping for three weeks.

The book The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn.  Is a great resource on ways to lower your food bill and keeping a pantry.

I also will cook a large batch of food I like and freeze a bunch of it.  I do a lot of this in the fall since I work retail hours at Christmas time.  If I eat out all the time I'm broke and gain way too much weight so I bring my lunch to work most days.  When it is really busy at work this is a life saver because you often can't leave for your lunch break.  I also have to watch what I eat and when I eat to keep my blood sugar from dropping.  I've gotten in habit of having food with me most of the time.  This saves time when I'm on the run so I don't live on fast food.  I

I try to buy stuff on sale, research big purchases before I need to replace an item and buy used when I can.  If I can make or fix something even better. 

I do have my week spots.  I love to go shopping.  I have a lot of expensive hobbies.  I love to support a bunch of causes.  I spend a fortune in gas because I hate to be at home.  There are things I don't spend a lot of money on so I can do the things I want to do.
If I can get back to tracking my money better I can save a lot of money and get a house and be able to indulge in some more expensive hobbies and still save money every month.

Basically getting out of debt is like dieting.  You have to make it a priority and be persistant about it.  If it is that important you will slowly make the changes and pay off the debt.  This is why I had to track every dime that came in and out of my life for a year and a half.  I had to know what I was spending my money on so I could decide if it was worth it and could I spend less next time.  If you do this you will see areas that you are spending to much on and places where you aren't spending enough.  Does your spending reflect your values, goals and dreams.  You will see money going toward things that you don't care about and you aren't spending money on the things you do care about.

[Dylboz]

Thanks for that. I live on a huge property, so I am growing a garden. I used to, but got out of the habit after my divorce. I used to get more tomatoes and zucchini than I could eat, so I'd preserve stuff for the inter. Nothing cooler than eating your own pickles in the winter.

[porcupine kate]

The transition was easy for me since I tend to plan everything in advance to the point I have back up plans.  I had to put the move off for a year due to knee surgery.  I had lost a huge chunk of time and money I was going to use for the move.  I had saved a rather large cash cushion for the move.  I had also researched the difference in cost of living so I could figure out what my living expenses would be and how much people are paid in my field. This was very useful when it came to evaluating job offers.  I had a job lined up before I got here.  My ex didn't but that was OK since I'm a good saver.  I did spend about 2/3 Rd's of the money I had saved for the move in the first 6 months after I got here.  This is largely due to the fact Bill and I weren't earning as much money as we were in VA and things are more expensive.  The biggest reason I spent so much money is there are too many fun things to do up here.  there is always something going on.  I didn't mind spending the money because I was doing the things I said I was going to do when moved here. I came up here to be an activist and get in involved in the community.  I have and I wouldn't trade it for the world.  Bill and I have split up recently and I do want to move to a less expensive place to live so I can buy a house next year buy myself.  I will not give up my activism, hobbies and dreams.  I will find a way to do it all.  The only debt I will ever take on is a mortgage and I will pay it off early.

I don't know if this will help plan the move up here but I've been working on a moving guide.

http://www.nhunderground.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=moving%20guide

It isn't quite finished but I figured it could help.
Kate

[J’raxis 270145]

yup and thanks to bush you cant wipe out student loans if u file bankruptcy.

That predates Bush. It's the Bush administration that's made getting out of other forms of debt much harder, at the behest of the private credit industry—which knew the massive credit crisis going on right now was going to happen (because they caused it).

[J’raxis 270145]

yup and thanks to bush you cant wipe out student loans if u file bankruptcy.

I would not care to file bankruptcy anyway... it is merely government-enabled irresponsibility.

There certainly are situations where individuals cannot make good on their obligations, usually more or less temporary. In fact, I've been in those shoes way more than I care to admit. Yet that is no justification for the government to step in and force creditors to let debtors off the hook permanently, and eat the loss themselves.

I would agree with this, to a point. Much of the credit industry nowadays is so firmly in bed with the State (and student loans are often backed directly by the government or government corporations), and they're behind so much State aggression, that I really can't get too upset at people defaulting on loans with such entities. In most cases, my usual reaction to seeing the State-embedded banking and credit industry get screwed by bankrupt debtors is "serves you right."

Of course, a case could still be made that, regardless of the credit industry's involvement with the State, since a person voluntarily entered into an agreement with them, said person is still responsible to make good on it. I would agree with this, provided that said person was fully informed about what they were getting into when they did so (which is most often not the case when dealing with professional creditors), and would simply advise people never to make such agreements in the first place. I would never take out a loan from these bastards, and would only enter into debt agreements with generally honorable people who haven't turned "obfuscated contract-writing" into an art form.

However, since the other side always seems to get to arbitrarily change the terms of said agreements (the credit industry doesn't call them "terms" of course—they call them "laws," and they buy favorable ones from the Congress from time to time), I would say that they are the side reneging on the agreement first, and that a person responding by refusing to pay back the loan under these new "terms," that make it more difficult or expensive to do so, isn't the one doing something dishonorable.

[J’raxis 270145]

... The fact is HMO laws, the AMA and the Pharma lobby are solely responsible for the so-called healthcare crisis in this nation, and it is precisely because they got the laws they wanted restricting types and availability of care and forcing the massive insurance industry onto us that we have this fucking mess.

[Radical_Teen]

Congratulations Kate. Of course I've never been in debt, unless you count owing a few bucks, I can imagin how much of a burden.

Kira

[porcupine kate]

If you can stay away from debt and keep up the careful care you take with your money you will be just fine.

[Friday]

Good for you, Kate!  I remember what it feels like to make that final payment and be debt-FREE, and it is awesome.   

I'm in a pretty deep hole, due to taking a year off work to put myself through private graduate school (with no government loans).  I also bought the trusty TANSTAAFL-mobilebile, with the intention of moving to snow country, when my old car was stolen (gosh I miss Oakland  ), and got it with 0% financing in exchange for paying it off in only two years. I've been working very hard to pay off the skool debt, and through a combination of maintaining an excellent credit rating which allows me to carry the balance at little to no interest, and socking away at least 1/3 of my take-home income (yes, I still pay taxes  ), I'm only a couple months away from having a net worth of zero.     That may not sound like much, but I can't tell you how excited I am about that. 

Check out the book Your Money or Your life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.  This book helped me a lot. 

Yes, this was one of the single most important books I ever read (although at this point I'd completely ignore all the investment advice and just stick with the value-of-money and money-management aspects).  I loaned out a copy at an MVP meeting and never got it back; fortunately, I like it so much I had bought a second copy when the original was in storage in California before I shipped my crap out to NH, so I still have one.   

[porcupine kate]

Congratulations Friday. 

I know a lot of people who would like to have a $0 net worth.  Digging out of the debt hole is so liberating.  Knowing I have a positive net worth and no debt is wonderful.  I'm not wealthy by any means but it is nice to know when things get rough I know I can still keep a roof over my head. 
I also want to get back into the habit of saving a third of my income.  The idea of taking on a mortgage to buy a house is very scary for me.  I want to make sure I can easily handle the payments and still be able to accumulate savings. 

[John Edward Mercier]

Think of the mortgage in terms of savings...
If you buy well in general you will be building your networth.